Money Extortion Of Foreign Workers Becomes Bancakan At The Ministry Of Manpower, Former Director Of PPTKA Pockets Up To IDR 18 Billion

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has officially announced eight suspects in the extortion case for the processing of foreign workers' permits (TKA) at the Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) for the 2019-2024 period.

Two of them were Suhartono and Haryanto who had served as Director General of Manpower Placement and Expansion of Job Opportunities (Binapenta and PKK) of the Ministry of Manpower. They are suspected of having participated in the flow of extortion money from foreign workers whose value reached Rp53.7 billion.

"During the period from 2019 to 2024, the amount of money received by the suspects and employees in the PPTKA Directorate from the applicant RPTKA was at least Rp53.7 billion," said the daily executor (Plh) of the KPK Investigation Director Budi Sokmo at a press conference at the KPK's Merah Putih building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta, Thursday, June 5.

Budi explained that Suhartono received money from the extortion amounting to Rp460 million during his tenure as Director General of Binapenta and PKK of the Ministry of Manpower in 2020-2023. Meanwhile, Haryanto, who also served as Director of PPTKA for the 2019-2024 period, received Rp18 billion.

Meanwhile, for the other suspects, namely Wisnu as Director of PPTKA Kemnaker for the 2017-2019 period, pocketed Rp580 million; Devi Anggraeni as Coordinator of the PPTKA Feasibility Test for the 2020-July period 2024 then became Director of PPTKA for the period 2024-2025 pocketing up to Rp2.3 billion; Gatot Widiartono as Coordinator for Analysis and Control of Foreign Jobs The Directorate of Foreign Labor Use Control of the Ministry of Manpower for the period 2021-2025 pocketed Rp6.3 billion.

Budi also explained that 3 staff at the Directorate General of Binapenta and PPK also pocketed money from extortion. Putri Citra Wahyo is said to have received Rp13.9 billion; Jamal Shodiqin received Rp1.1 billion; and Alfa Eshad received Rp1.8 billion.

"In addition to being enjoyed by SH, HY, WP, DA, GTW, PCW, ALF, and JMS, on the orders of SH and HY, the money was also given to almost all employees of the PPTKA Directorate of approximately 85 people of at least Rp. 8.94 billion," he explained.

Then other money, continued Budi, was also distributed to employees at the directorate as money for two weeks. The suspects then spent the money they got to buy an asset called themselves or their family.

In this case, the extortion of foreign workers who handled the Feasibility Assessment Result (HPK) and RPTKA Ratification documents online. "That the suspect SH, WP, HY, DA allegedly ordered PCW, ALF, and JMS as verifiers at the PPTKA Directorate to ask the applicant for some money so that the RPTKA documents were approved and issued," concluded Budi.